One of the participants in a recent corporate team building rhythm session that I conducted in San Diego remarked that he was moved to re-read the book, Flow, because i included that concept in the session. That inspired me to re-read parts of it again, myself!
I enthusiastically recommend psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s ground-breaking book, Flow, to you, and to anyone who wants to learn more about this heightened and deepened state of awareness.
This is the same state that athletes call The Zone, that Martial Arts and Zen practitioners sometimes refer to a Effortless Mastery, and that others call the Mind/Body connection. This is the state of being that we also call being “in-the-moment”.
Musicians call it the Groove. This is when we’re playing deeply entrained with each other, and with anyone who can hear and feel our music.
We enter this state, no matter what the activity is, through repeating physical actions with positive intentions and a mindful and disciplined focus on the underlying fundamental skills of our actions. This is the place where our conscious minds take a well-deserved break from judging and editing our actions and thoughts, and our subconscious minds and our bodies connect on an intuitive level.
Of course, “repetitive actions” is just another term for “rhythms”!
It does take time to enter into this state; we have to continue repeating our actions even, and especially, when our conscious minds get “bored” and want to try something new. As the amazing American Opera singer Beverly Sills stated, “There is no shortcut to any place worth going.”!
As we build and reinforce these fundamental actions into our muscle-and nerve-memory, we are able to let go of conscious effort and enter into this Flow state. This is a state of graceful power!